Westhill (14-6-2) will now face No. 3 Staples-Weston-Shelton (15-8), which beat Woodstock Academy 6-5 in overtime, in the championship game scheduled to be played on Saturday at 10 a.m.

“For all the doubters who said it wouldn’t work, what do you have to say now,” said co-head coach Doug Robinson. “It worked well with no problems and we’re here now.”

The Vikings suffered a double-overtime loss last year in the semifinals to Masuk in their last game before joining with the Black Knights so the move has already paid dividends by one game. Stamford beat Westhill 4-0 in the 2001 Division II championship game.

Westhill was led by Nick Rich, who had one goal and two assists while Chris Clemmensen chipped in with an empty-net goal and one assist.

Goalkeeper Christian Compolattaro turned away 25 shots. The junior came up huge in the middle frame with eight big saves when the Vikings were building a 2-0 lead.

The script for the game had run perfectly for Westhill-Stamford. The team’s coaches gave the players a list of three things to accomplish to give them a chance against top-seeded NFI. They needed their defensemen to skate the puck out of the defensive zone, they needed to control the action in the neutral zone and they needed to push the NFI attackers to the outside, thereby keeping the front of the net clear for Compolattaro.

Westhill-Stamford co-head coach John Santagata said his team achieved almost every goal but pointed to its conference schedule as a big reason to the squad’s playoff success.

“We played very well tonight,” said Santagata. “We kept everything to the outside so Compolattaro could see the puck. We allowed nothing in tight and we used our speed and we talked about that. We’re used to an FCIAC schedule and they’re not but they are a good team and their goalie played well.”

The strategy worked so well NFI did not score until there was only 4:19 left in the game and it took a brilliant individual effort from Christian Benzing. The Rebels’ wing swept down the left side and sent a wrist shot sizzling over Compolattaro’s glove to cut NFI’s deficit to 2-1.

Westhill responded immediately by sending the puck deep into the Rebels’ end and created a scrum in front of goalie Shane Conciatore. Rich was able to poke it in to restore the Vikings’ two-goal cushion at 3-1 with 3:52 left in the final period.

NFI pulled Conciatore as time wound down which gave Clemmensen his tally with 58 seconds left in the game to make the final score 4-1. The Rebels sent Conciatore back into the game after the goal and he finished the game with 33 saves.

NFI ended the season with a 19-4 mark.

The game started with the Rebels controlling the action but they only had three shots off their work. The Vikings even killed off a penalty without allowing a shot on goal. The penalty kill seemed to swing the momentum to Westhill and the co-op broke though minutes later.

Defenseman Gunner Eriksen moved the puck from deep in his end to behind the Rebels’ goal. He lost control against the boards but the attempted clear by the NFI defense was kept in by Nick Smeriglio at the blue line. Rich picked up the loose puck and got it back to Eriksen, who popped a backhand into the net for a 1-0 advantage, which Eriksen called the turning point.

“We were really nervous heading out so it was big,” said Eriksen. “But after that we just did our thing.”

The second period went in much the same manner as Westhill weathered an initial attack by the Rebels until the Vikings were able to grab the momentum. This time it was Rick and Clemmensen doing some extra digging behind the NFI net before slipping the puck to John Nilsen standing alone high in the slot for the open shot and a 2-0 edge.

“They’re a very good team and they’re well coached but we watched a lot of tape,” said Robinson of NFI. “We thought if we took the middle of the ice away from them it would help us. I thought the game was pretty decent. We knew they would trap and our defense would have to skate the puck up ice.”